Entering a Giving Batch into PCO
The video below outlines how giving batches should entered into Planning Center Giving. It is crucial that PCO (Planning Center Online) Giving should be used exclusively for donations (see this article: https://pcogiving.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204942714). It should only be seen as a donor tracking tool and not a bookkeeping tool. In addition to the reasons in the article, the reason we do require this approach is that it:
- ensures things are categorized correctly the first time
- Helps to ensure a reduction in possible errors on giving statements
- Ensures your reporting for planning is correct. Right now these are all being entered as "giving" which will superficially impact the overall giving listed on the reporting.
Instead of including things such as bookstore proceeds, fees for an event, bible study books and etc...in planning center using any kind of method (i.e. a dummy user, a "non-tax deductible" fund, etc...) 2 separate deposits would be prepared and taken to the bank any time you have what we refer to as "non-giving income" (this would be ANY income that is not a donation/not tax deductible).
- Deposit 1 would be all the donation checks/cash. This deposit slip should match the batch total 100% exactly. Even 10 cents different and we will report it to you as a variance. We have access to planning center so we can verify this deposit by looking at planning center.
- Deposit 2 would be everything that is not a donation. All bookstore, fees, etc...should be included in deposit 2. Anytime you a deposit is made of non-giving income we also need this form to use the Support Form dedicated to your church to submit the details of the deposit using the deposit itemization option. You will let us know how many categories are impacted by the deposit (for example if you have a 500 deposit and you need 250 of it for the bookstore and 250 of it for men's ministry) you would choose the option for 'multiple' and then in the text field you would input that exact info.
***Please note that while you are welcome to use you bank app mobile deposit option, we do discourage it because the bank views each check as a separate deposit. This means that if you have 10 checks that you deposit using a mobile app, you will then need 10 corresponding batches in PCO so the deposit entries and the batches line up exactly.